bugsb....I am a certified koi health advisor. This information is common knowledge among the koi community and koi veterninarians (including the KHA program instructors). If you want to feed trout food....go ahead! It makes no difference to me. Koi keeping is not a poor man's hobby....but I somehow found myself right in the middle of it. Believe me....I am not wealthy! I built all of my ponds myself (3100 gallons, 9000 gallons and 1300 gallons plus two 300 gallon Quarantine tanks). Most of my filtration is DIY. I can't afford to feed the BEST koi food on the market....even though I have seen the results in other people's fish. Some of that stuff runs $10 to $20 per POUND!! I do my homework though, and look hard for the best food that I can find for the money.....a food that is formulated for koi, has the proper ingrediants for koi, and is affordable. Good decision Eric! Here's a run-down of the foods that I have reviewed and found to be both affordable and good quality: Aqion (www.aqion.com) is a good food for the money. they are in the midwest somewhere so shipping out to seattle may not be that costly. Their wheat germ food is especially nice. Blackwater Creek (available from may suppliers, including Foster and Smith and also Aquatic eco systems). Very nutritious food. The only thing I didn't like about it the first time I used it is that the food left a slight oily sheen on the water. This is due to the fish oils used during processing. I initially did not like the oily film and declared I would not use the food again....but I have since changed my opinion. My filters are cleaner than they have been before and the pond water looks fantastic. I will order this food again. Azoo is another good, inexpensive food. The only thing I don't care for is that it has color enhancers in it and Idid notice the fish pinked up every so slightly on them. Not a problem for most people....but some of these fish are show fish and I can't have any pink in the whites. the wheat germ food didn't do this....only the high protein growth food. (Aquatic eco sells this) Mazuri wheat germ food is also good. I don't like regular mazuri because it has too much corn in it, but the wheat germ food for cool weather is a good product. Available from Purina dealers.

This is not a common soil amendment to find in bulk......most typically it is offered as a bagged product through nurseries and home improvement stores. You could visit the Ostrom's Mushroom farm near Olympia (or call) to see if they have bulk retail outlets for their SMS or if you can get it from them directly. Otherwise, the attached link is the only bulk provider I am aware of but they don't have a yard - delivery only. One of the reasons this may not be very common in bulk is that a little goes a very long way :-) SMS (mushroom compost) tends to have a rather high pH and much higher concentration of soluble salts than does other forms of compost. Here is a link that might be useful: Joe's Landscaping Supplies

You could contact Designati NY Construction,they recently have done renovation of my house.Price are reasonable and completed on time.I found them on the web www.designatiny.com

Seattle has Pental Granite and Marble. http://www.pentalonline.com/seattle.html I've visited their Fife shop, not their Seattle shop, but they had an enormous amount of stone, marble included, and I was really, really impressed with how they presented themeselves as a business. They have their act together. I really got the impression they were the "Nordstrom" (and then some) of the stone business.